Protective coveralls which are effective against a wide variety of hazards are known and commercially available. One such class of coveralls provides protection against flame, radiant heat and contact heat and are useful as fire-entry garments. Another class of coveralls protects against splashes of corrosive liquids, hot liquids, molten metals and the like. Still other coveralls protect against poisonous gases and liquids. However, improvements are needed in known coverall garments to obtain protection against high pressure steam jets. In general, jets of steam supplied at pressures of 1000 kPa or greater almost instantly penetrate currently available, commercial protective garments and cause holes to form in the garments. Such steam jets therefore could inflict serious injury upon the wearer of the known protective garments. Furthermore, in available two-layer protective garments, wherein an inner liner is intended as a thermal barrier between the wearer and the heat source, the liner usually is very heavy and uncomfortable to wear.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a lightweight coverall garment that affords greater protection against high pressure jets of steam than currently available prior art garments.